Children's Physiotherapy - (EHCP)

Education, Health and Care Plan

What is an EHCP?

In the Physiotherapy team for children and young people, we understand that the process surrounding Eduactional Health care plan cans can feel difficult.

With these pages we would like to help you navigate and guide you through the process relating to Physiotherapy EHCP Needs Assessments. All assessments are done in partnership with you as the expert when it comes to your child.

1. Referral

Once the local authority has received an EHCP needs assessment request, they will gather information about the child or young person’s ( CYP) and contact the relevant health professionals for additional evidence .

Once the children’s Physiotherapy team will receive such a request, we will open a referral on the Physiotherapy EHCP pathway

2. Information Gathering

Is the CYP known to the Child and young person physiotherapy team, the Physiotherapist who last saw your child will give you a call and discuss any recent changes and agree on priority needs and outcome.

If your child was discharged no less than 6 months ago we may use the relevant information on the most recent report.

If your child is not known and has never been seen by a physiotherapist . We may ring you to discuss the main concerns initially before inviting you to a 1-hour assessment

3. Report Writing

The physiotherapist will write an educational needs assessment report/ and fill in the ENA form and send this to Newham local authority.

A copy of the report will be sent to the parent.

Please note that the recommendations and provisions in the report are based on clinical reasoning and have been carefully considered along side a senior member of the team

5. Discharge

Once the EHCP advice has been submitted, we will close the EHCP referral. If your child has ongoing Physiotherapy needs, your child will be seen according to their clinical Pathway.

6. Next Step

If the Physiotherapy need is part of a universal provision, it is the responsibility of the local authority to provide that support or adaptation. For specialist and direct intervention, one of our physiotherapist will provide training to support staff and/ or intervention per EHCP quantification to your child in school

Where will the appointment take place?

You will be invited to attend either West Ham Lane Health Centre or Appleby Health centre

What if I need an interpreter?

Most of the time this information is already on our system and an interpreter will be booked by us. But if you feel, after the first appointment you do not need or request a specific interpreter, please let us know ahead of the appointment.

How should I prepare for the appointment?

Please make sure your child is wearing comfortable clothes; shorts may be advisable as we may have to undress your child

What will the Physiotherapist do during appointment?

We understand it is important to emphasise the views of the child or young person, and the family. We will therefore have a discussion at the beginning of the session about what is important to you as a family.
The Physiotherapist will evaluate the child or young person either by observing them during activities or by using more formal assessments if appropriate.

A New Code of Practice

The Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice was introduced in 2015 with the aim of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) replacing the statement of special educational needs (dfe, 2015). The key changes that the new Code Of Practice brought were:

Increasing the age from 19 to 25 years
Reducing the maximum time for completion of the assessment process to 20 weeks
Requiring collaboration between education, health and social services
Requiring the involvement of children, young people and their families
Requiring the views and aspirations of children, young people and their families
Requiring the identification and recording of outcomes for children and young people

The title of the EHCP reinforces the importance of the collaboration that should happen between education, healthcare services and social care services.

Newham Local Offer for Education, Health and Care Plans

Here you can find out more about the local offer for Education, Health and Care Plans in Newham

Find out more

SENDIASS information on Education, Health and Care Plans

The Special Education needs and Disabilities Information Advice and Support Services (SENDIASS) offer information, advice and support for parents and carers of children and young people with special education needs and disabilities (SEND).

Find out more

SENDIASS further information on the process of EHC Needs Assessments

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